This is not Safari it is Firefox with the GrApple Yummy theme.

If you are running the latest Firefox 3.0 beta, one nice new feature is the new theme called Proto that looks a lot better and more Leopard-like than previous versions of Firefox. I still for one am not that crazy about the new theme and have opted as I have in the past to use Aronnax themes. There are two Safari 3-like themes for Firefox 3 available, the GrApple Delicious and GrApple Yummy. I’m using GrApple Yummy, although I do admit it can get confusing when I have both Firefox and Safari open at the same time. Both themes are free, and are installed in a couple mouse clicks and a re-launch of Firefox. Aronnax does have accept PayPal donations.

With all the hoopla over Apple defaulting Safari 3.1 to install on Windows users machines with Software Update you would think this is a “major” crime against Windows users. Although, I do not agree with these tactics, I assure you this is nothing new for Windows users or even Mac users using Microsoft products.

Examples would be Microsoft pushing Internet Explorer 7 on Windows users that have automatic updates on or when they do a Windows update. Well you might think that this is OK because IE 7 is an update to IE 6, but I will point out at the large company I work for this ended up with loads of issues when Microsoft pushed out IE 7 as it broke many important Intranet sites the company relies on with no easy way to revert back. Lots of users felt this pain.

Continue reading My Take on the Apple Software Update with Safari 3.1…

Firefox 2.0 will be officially released tomorrow, but I have downloaded the official release i
from this directory on the Mozilla Foundation’s FTP servers. It installed on two of my Macs without any problems and just about all my extensions (now called add-ons) were easy to update.

Firefox 2.0 offers aesthetic enhancements, usability improvements, and an assortment of useful new features, including support for built-in spell-checking, phishing protection, Javascript 1.7, and session persistence. For a full list of Firefox 2.0 new features check Mozilla’s release notes.
Continue reading Firefox 2.0 Released Day Early…

If you are looking for a nice BitTorrent client for the Mac there are several to choose from. Maybe not as many as there are for the Windows platform. As usual it is quality, not quantity that matters. The choices for OS X may be less than your Windows friends, but there are some real nice applications for the Mac.

If you are not familar with BitTorrent or do not know what it is take a look at my post Acquisition, P2P File-Sharing, and BitTorrent for OS X to learn about P2P networks and BitTorrent.
Continue reading BitTorrent Clients for the Mac/Windows…

In an effort to provide a more Mac-like browser, Mozilla has started and effort to create a Firefox browser using Apple’s Cocoa API codenamed Minefield. The Cocoa-based nightly builds of Firefox have begun appearing. I have downloaded one of them and gave it a test run. These are the first public versions of Josh Aas who pioneered the effort to port Firefox to Mactel and is now been charged with making Firefox more Mac-like.

The current stable Firefox version for Mac OS X, is great for everyday use. The new Minefield builds, do provide a much more Mac-like look-and feel and should also ensure better integration with other OS X technologies and applications. But proceed with caution as these Minefield nightly builds are experimental and are possibly unstable.
Continue reading Cocoa-enhanced Firefox Nightly Builds…

If you are a web developer, Firefox and its many extensions can be your best friend. I thought I would provide a list of extensions that are very useful. Of course these are all free Firefox extensions. Most will work on all the same platforms Firefox does, except were noted. These extensions are definately worth your time investagating, some of them I consider “must-haves” for web developers. The ones in bold are my favorites.
Continue reading Firefox Add-ons: For Web Developers…

dragdropupload adds the ability to drop files into attachment boxes instead of browse for them or type in the filename. You can drop multiple files and fill all the entries. In some websites it allows to add new upload files: in Gmail is possible to drop the files directly over the “Attach a file” link. A Sidebar allows to drop files from a listing.

This is very useful add on for GMail users who also use Firefox. This is much simpler and quicker than browsing for the file to attach to an email. After installation, you can customise the Firefox toolbar to include the dragdropupload icon. Just go to View -> Toolbars -> Customize and drag the “Drag Drop Upload” button to where ever you want the icon to appear. Clicking it opens a sidebar file browser from which you can drag the file you want to attach.

Dictionary Tooltip is another solution for the missing Cocoa application dictionary for Firefox. You may or may not like it better than the Answers extension I already recommended.

Press ctrl+shift+D (or) double-click (or) right-click after selecting a word to see its meaning. This extension is ideal for those who doesn’t like to switch their window to see the meaning of a word. The developer says it was not tested on a Mac, but it works fine on my Mac.

One of the best features of Safari is its “Snap Back” technology. I miss this feature when using Firefox. I found this extension that attempts to do a similar function.

SnapBack similar to Apple’s Safari. Save an URL as “waypoint”. Follow as many links as you want and then jump back. This extension does not add itself to any toolbar. You must install it and customize your toolbar manually. Also you must save the URL for Snap Back to work unlike Safari.

If you miss the built-in dictionary in all of Apple’s Cocoa applications (this includes Safari) when using Firefox, this add-on for Firefox may just provide the “answers.” Pun intended!

Answers - Answers.com provides reliable facts and definitions from over 100 dictionaries, encyclopedias and almanacs without having to search through lists of search engine links.

Hold down Alt (or Option on a Mac) and click on any word to get a quick definition, an up-to-the-minute reference and more. You don’t even need to highlight the word!
Continue reading Firefox Add-ons: “Answers” Adds Missing Cocoa Feature To Firefox…

If you ever have trouble getting a website to work with Firefox, although rare, it does happen in our MS Internet Explorer dominated world, you can sometimes change your browser’s user agent to look like another browser. It does not work all the time, but often it does. Some websites incorrectly detect encryption capabilities and report that Mozilla Suite and Firefox do not have 128-bit encryption. You may be able to get around this problem by changing the browser’s user agent string to that of Internet Explorer.

User Agent Switcher Extension adds a menu and a toolbar button to switch the user agent of the browser.

Continue reading Firefox Add-ons: User Agent Extension…

Google’s Send to Phone for Firefox is an extension that enables you to send short text messages (SMS) of web page content to your mobile phone. For example, you might text message yourself or someone else a phone number, an address, directions, or a blog entry that you find on the Web.
Continue reading Firefox Add-ons: Google Send to Phone Extension…

One of the things I missed the most using Firefox over Safari was .Mac synchronizing bookmarks and passwords between my various Macs. I have been using Bookmark Synchronizer 3, with Firefox which did part of the job. Google, in its assault on Apple’s .Mac service, has just released a Browser Sync extension for Firefox that allows users to continuously synchronize your browser settings across computers including bookmarks, history, persistent cookies and saved passwords. It also allows you to restore open tabs and windows across different machines and browser sessions. The Browser Sync extension works with all of the operating systems supported by Firefox the opens-source browser. Unlike .Mac this includes Windows and Linux as well as Mac OS X and is FREE. This makes all my computers happy!

Google does warns that using the extension can increase your browser’s start-up time. Installing the extension is pretty easy and I will now say goodbye to Bookmark Synchronizer 3 as Google’s Browser Sync works better and does more. Browser Sync uses encryption to protect your data over the Internet so passwords are not sent over the Net in the clear. Your data is stored with your Google Account which is free. If you have Gmail, you already have a Google account.

To use Google Browser Sync, simply install and configure the extension on all computers for which you’d like your browser settings automatically kept in sync. Even if you only install Browser Sync on a single computer, you can use it to backup your browser settings and to restore your open tabs and windows across browser sessions.
Continue reading Firefox Add-ons: Google Adds The “Missing Sync”…

Viamatic foXpose

If you often use “tabbed” browsing and have several web pages loaded in tabs at once, you will like this Extension available free here.

You click on the icon in the status bar (or use assignable shortcut key) to view all the browser windows with a single click. Now just pick the one you want.

Kind of like the Mac OS X Exposé for Firefox!

Tab X

Add a close button to each of the browser tabs, and removes the close button at the end of the tab bar making it more like Safari.

Download this Extension here. But wait the X is on the right side! Want to move it to the left, matching Safari? See here.